The global pandemic forced you to isolate. That you get a pass for. Your insistence to stay 100% virtual in 2023 though? That I can't support.

If you do anything that requires building trust, like say, convincing VCs to invest in your company, I urge you to close your laptop and venture into the physical world.

Now, advice like this rarely sticks without context or texture. But you're in luck because I know this. And doubly in luck because I just got back from a 2-week trip to São Paulo Brazil with tons of stories to share that link to this advice... IRL FTW.

So let's go (vai!)...

First, why Brazil? It started with an IRL meeting...

I won't pretend like I'm unaffected by the siren's song of Zoom convenience. There are many unfortunate days when I don't take a single step outside my house. My work is computer-based, my teammates are global and remote, and I work with founders mostly over Zoom. If I wanted to, I could easily convince myself that staying at home in my PJs all day was the right thing to do.

But instead, I did the complete opposite two weeks ago and flew down to Brazil.

How'd that happen?

It really started two years ago with a random meeting that was the precursor to this most recent trip. My best friend, Parker Treacy, had moved to Brazil full-time to start his company Cobli in 2013 and along the way met another entrepreneur named Brian Requarth. Parker asked me to chat with Brian about his new company because he thought I could help.

As many of you know, the company Brian started is called Latitud and I decided to help with their first cohort not knowing it would become the A16Z backed rocketship it is today (or that Brian would become a Shark in Mexico...😅).

That meeting was over Zoom though, so how is this a lesson in IRL?

Although my initial meeting with Brian and conversation with Latitud took place over Zoom, my continued engagement probably wouldn't have happened if it weren't for something Brian did.

Soon after my first workshop with Latitud, I happened to be in Sonoma where Brian was living at the time. We exchanged texts about meeting up but it was hard to coordinate. While at a nice restaurant with my family, I heard someone say my name. It was Brian. He noted the restaurant we'd be going to and showed up to say hi, drop off a nice bottle of wine as a thank you gift, and just get a solid, IRL handshake.

I haven't seen the studies, but I estimate one solid handshake and a couple minutes of pleasantries is the equivalent of 10 Zoom calls and 100 emails when it comes to building a relationship.

I honestly am not sure I would have done more than my one workshop with Latitud if it weren't for that effort Brian made to see me in person.

Brian, Latitud, and I have now done a lot of work together and expect to collaborate even more.

1st IRL lesson - if you think a relationship is valuable, make the extra effort to see them IRL. IRL can accelerate trust tremendously,

How strong is the relationship? I now go to Brazil 2x per year partially to support the community that Latitud introduced me to. Pretty darn strong!

4 additional IRL lessons + stories from Brazil

So what other lessons can I share from my trip? There were a lot of IRL experiences that you all can learn from. My trip was event-filled and the biggest pull was not work this time. I actually decided to go down for my birthday and then add some more startup-related events around it!

Here were the top IRL experiences from my trip and the lessons you can learn from them:

(continue reading....)

Love Carta data. These avgs seem good. I thought the data would be closer to even splits which isn’t a good thing…

I want to know what Seed and Series A mean

This requires further investigation 😜

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